Friday, March 7, 2014

The War-Bear: Yet Another B/X or LL Class

But first the news...

Once again the eastern borderlands of
the Overkingdom will be filled with the sight of shaggy, dejected
columns of soldier-bears lumbering back to the hollow-seeming duties
of garrison life. For Yambor, the great biennial pilgrimage of
those furry myrmidons to the Slumbering Ursine Dunes, is over.
But some younger cubs and war bears resist the melancholy by striking
out on the road of vagrant adventuring scumbaggery.

Popping of up seemingly everywhere that a
party may need a hired paw is one bear in particular,
Preved!, who makes the same offer “for 40 shiny golds and
two fish I run with you tonight.”

Preved!, 2nd-level Soldier Bear,
Hitpoints 12, AC:6. Uses Bohemian Ear Spoon (d10+1). Has an
uncomfortable tendency to pop in at an intimate moments of the humans around him shouting his
name.

War Bear

Requirements: STR 13, CON 14

Prime Requisite: CON

Hit Dice: 1d10

Maximum Level: 8

The Nurian Soldier-Bear stands
alongside the Ostrovan pikeman, Kozak horse-archer and Northland atlatl-man as some of the most renowned examples of soldiery
in the world of Zem. Lesser known are the wayward bears who strike
out on their own in the world in search of quantitatively measured
experience, the proud bearers of the appellation, War Bear.

War Bears can wear no armor other than
a helmet and instead have a base armor class (a DEX bonus can be
added). Magical devices can be used but must be able to fit around
the large-sized limbs of the War Bear.

Though outside the comforting phalanx
of soldier life, the War Bear retains the deep, obsessional love of
polearms, including the traditional +1 to hit and damage when
employing it. Indeed a War Bear who has been parted from the sight of
such a weapon for longer than a day will sicken with dejection and
beyond a constant audible and dramatic sighing will lose a hit point
until he grasps it yet again. In a weaponless pinch they can strike twice a round with their paws for 1d4 damage each.

At level 6, the War Bear can invent and
name a polearm of his own design at a cost of 500 gold suns and two
weeks of intense concentration, such a weapon will be +2 to hit and
damage only in his own paws and can even strike those creatures only
harmable by magic weapons. At level 8, the War Bear has reached such
fame that he can automatically attract a warband of 50 soldier-bears
on the creation of a comfy underground den complex of no less than
2000 square feet (and two latrines).